The present invention relates to a seal assembly, and more particularly to an integrated slinger and wear sleeve seal assembly.
Current unitized seal designs are relatively complicated assemblies which seal rotational interfaces, such as where a yoke exits/enters an axle housing. Conventional seal designs are implemented to reduce the difficulty of assembly and to eliminate the requirement to change yokes after a seal failure. A unitized design includes rubber internal bump stops to preload excluder lips during yoke installation, and a running surface sleeve for a main seal lip interface. The bump stop and running sleeve interaction may create seal assembly and longevity issue tradeoffs.
Disadvantageously, the rubber bump stops increase thermal generation, through friction which is transferred to the seal element and may effect seal longevity. Reduction of the bump stops size, however, may fail to properly locate the excluder lips during yoke installation.
A resilient insulating material such as rubber is also utilized within the inner diameter of the running sleeve to maintain static friction between the yoke and running sleeve to prevent relative rotation. Minimization of the insertion force of the yoke through the running sleeve reduces assembly complications. Increasing the rubber within the running sleeve reduces insertion force and insulates heat within the seal. Removal of rubber increases insertion force but more readily transfers heat to the seal.
In addition, a slinger stamping is often separately mounted to the axle housing to further protect the seal assembly. Aside from the additional component, some seal locations do not have the benefit of a separate slinger stamping because of the housing geometry.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a robust and uncomplicated seal assembly which incorporates a slinger into the seal assembly via the running sleeve to isolate the seal and eliminate the bump stops to set excluder lip preload.